Commonly assigned patent application Serial No. 08/854,353, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,933, the disclosure of which is herewith incorporated by reference, describes a stage lighting system which operates based on computer-provided commands to form special effects. One of those effects is control of the shape of a light pattern that is transmitted by the device. This control is carried out on a pixel-by-pixel basis, hence referred to in this specification as pixilated. Control is also carried out using an x-y controllable device. The preferred embodiment describes using a digital mirror device, but other x-y controllable devices such as a grating light valve, are also contemplated.
The computer controlled system includes a digital signal processor 106 which is used to create an image command. That image command controls the pixels of the x-y controllable device to shape the light that it is output from the device.
The system described in the above-referenced application allows unparalleled flexibility in selection of gobo shapes and movement. This opens an entirely new science of controlling gobos. The present inventors found that, unexpectedly, even more flexibility is obtained by a special control language for controlling those movements.